


What Gwen Sees

by nemo_baker



Series: What They See [3]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Episode: s02e04 Meat, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Prompt Fic, Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-08 22:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4322760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nemo_baker/pseuds/nemo_baker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the prompt from <a href="http://jo02.livejournal.com/">jo02</a>: I have a fondness for fic where Jack and Ianto are being observed - by accident - by one of the other characters (hopefully Gwen) and learns something positive and new about their relationship. Something nice but not mushy or sentimental.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Gwen Sees

**Author's Note:**

> Third part of the series! And yeah, I know using this ep in this way is a bit of a popular trope but I had a headcanon that fit well with the prompt. So I hope you like my take!  
> Also: This is all I originally planned to do, but I really like this idea so it might not be totally over.

  
The bandages around Ianto’s wrists served as a reminder that his hands had been bound. That he’d had a gun held to his head (again), and that this time the person holding it had actually pulled the trigger.

The fact that he was alive was the reminder that they’d heard a click instead of a bang.

Gwen hadn’t been focused on those things at the time they occurred. She’d been holding her bleeding fiance in her arms, after all. But when she’d returned to work a day after the ordeal with the space whale, the part of the story she’d missed had become evident. Guilt swamped her when Ianto had greeted her with a barely-there smile, when Tosh and Owen had averted their gazes.

Jack had simply given her a nod.

Two more days had gone now, and they were treating her pretty normally again. Things were settling, just as they always did, and she couldn’t bring herself to completely regret her words. She’d said what she felt she needed to say. And in retrospect, perhaps she hadn’t been the most diplomatic, said things more harshly than was strictly necessary. But Jack had heard her, and that was what she’d wanted.

The only thing still out of place was Jack. She hadn’t noticed at first, but as her routine had resumed, she saw that his hadn’t. It became almost rare to find him in his office, and Gwen would instead find him wandering near the Archives. The kitchen. The garage.

Wherever Ianto happened to be.

Ianto seemed to take it in stride well enough, with no more than a raised eyebrow in response to Jack’s numerous appearances in his workspaces. Gwen, on the other hand, was thrown. Jack was being positively _clingy_ by his normal standards. She resolved to talk to him about it, see if she could help him with whatever he was feeling.

On her fourth day back at work, it appeared as if Ianto was going to beat her to it.

She’d been walking past the kitchen, hearing the sound of the coffee maker grinding away, when she saw Jack standing behind Ianto with a pensive expression on his face. Ianto was filling their mugs and appeared not to have noticed him. Once he’d filled the tray, Ianto turned abruptly.

“Oh for–” The mugs rattled as the two nearly collided. “Jack!”

“Whoops, sorry,” Jack said. “Guess I should have–”

“That’s it.” Ianto put the tray in Jack’s hands, completely ignoring the shocked expression on the other man’s face. “Pass those around. I want you down at the gun range in fifteen.”

“What? Why?”

“Why do you think?”

She plastered herself against the wall as Ianto stalked past, and managed to avoid being noticed. It was another few minutes before a very bemused Jack followed.

He’d left the tray behind.

\---

Her curiosity refused to relent, and so she eventually followed them down to the gun range. She approached the gaping entryway and placed herself in the shadows.

“Training me again?” Jack asked, unlocking the arms box.

_What?_

“Yep,” Ianto said.

“You know, the orange glasses look really cute on you.”

“As you said last time. And don’t call me cute.”

“Adorable?”

“Just show me how you load the cartridge.”

She watched as Ianto showed Jack how to handle his own Webley, what stance to use when aiming, how to handle the recoil. All things that Jack already knew. The ease with which they went through the motions told Gwen that they had done this routine many times before. But why in the world would Jack need gun training from Ianto?

She realized their demeanor wasn’t anything like her own gun training session had been. Ianto’s instruction was crisp and professional, and Jack followed every direction to the letter. And that’s when she realized what this was for.

“Good. Can you show me with the SIG?”

“Yes.”

Jack had just needed the chance to let someone else hold the reigns for a while. He needed to be the soldier instead of the commander. Ianto seemed to have known this instinctively, and was giving him the opportunity.

Jack went through the entire magazine, and Ianto stood silently beside him until the last shot finished ringing.

“You did very well,” Ianto said.

“Thank you.”

“You going to tell me what’s going on with you?”

There was a pause.

“I think you know,” Jack said quietly.

“Well, I think I just proved your concerns invalid. Obviously, I remember all of my gun training.”

“And?”

“You taught me to count rounds, Jack. I knew the guy’s gun was empty before he pointed it at me.”

“... _I_ didn’t.”

_“But we understand how you feel.”_

_“No you don’t. No you don’t, Jack!”_

How could she ever have accused him of not understanding?

Ianto’s hand slid over Jack’s, and he pulled the SIG from the other man’s fingers.

“Trust me to know. Then you’ll have one less thing to worry about.”

Gwen retreated silently, wiping her sleeve across her face.


End file.
